A while ago I was in an online discussion regarding “Correct Tools for
the Jobs” and how ruby was not a good language for developing say, an
operating system.

Someone made a comment that it was not a good idea to use ruby for
bayesian filtering of things like forum posts. (Bayesian filtering is
one of the primary algorithms used for determining if an email or forum
post is spam or not).

They made some performance claims which seemeds exceedingly slow, but
also made some statements that made me suspect their application design
was not all that it could be so I thought I would see if ruby was the
guilty party.

This post is not primarily about bayesian filtering but about
performance testing; it is probably most helpful to low to intermediate
ruby developers.

Greetings. If you have arrived at this page via your own volition and intent
then be aware that this is an abridged, slightly more modern, IRC specific
version of Eric S. Raymond’s “How to ask questions the smart way”
which is excellent, but lengthy, reading.

If, on the other hand, you have been directed to this page by someone else and
quickly want to find out what this is about, Read on.